This week’s box included: tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, okra, green peppers, Italian peppers, potatoes, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, spaghetti squash. You can see a photo to can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne over the years.
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Conne is at the beach this week. This is Suzanne pinch-hitting. I’m short on time, so this will be brief.
This box announces loud and clear that we’re fully in summer produce mode. If only the sweet corn had come in, too! It’ll be here soon enough.
The trick this week is differentiating between the three orbs that were in each box. First is the cantaloupe, easily discerned by smelling the blossom end. There’s no mistaking it for anything else. Pop that baby into the refrigerator so that it will keep for your holiday picnic. I like to eat mine by the half, seeds and pulp removed, a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream in their place.
Next up, watermelon. Each box had one watermelon in it; I saw two different varieties in two different boxes: a two-toned yellow striped “red in gold” variety rumored to be particularly sweet; and a green striped variety not sure which. Both have red flesh and are the perfect size, not overwhelming but enough to share. I don’t know which I would choose if I had to make a choice. Almost always, I cut watermelon into slabs and serve alongside whatever’s for dinner. Tonight it was rice pasta (cold) with a kale pesto topped with diced tomatoes and shrimp. The kale from last week had to move along, and this recipe makes use of an entire bunch: Pasta with Kale Pesto. I added a little bit of honey to cut the kale’s bite, and some sweet basil. We didn’t eat it all at dinner, so the pesto leftovers are freezing now in healthy dollops on a piece of wax paper. Once they’re frozen solid, I’ll transfer them to a ziploc, label, and have them on hand for pesto magic.
If you find yourself with too much watermelon, freeze it in chunks for easy frose.
The last orb of the week is a, wait for it, SPAGHETTI SQUASH! This is the first winter squash of 2024, arriving just as summer is hitting its stride. This variety of spaghetti squash is smooth skinned (as they all are), golden yellow, with some variation in the coloring that remotely resemble dotted stripes. It’s smaller than the watermelon.
Spaghetti squash needs cooking. We’ve got handfuls of spaghetti squash recipes that Conne has shared over the years. Pressed for time? Cut it into quarters, remove seeds & pulp, give it a slick of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roast until the flesh is easily shredded into “noodles” with a fork. Serve with your favorite sauce.
Know your orbs! And Happy Fourth.
Suzanne
PS: How fun that okra also debuted this week!